What are the best places you’ve been to that are actually worth exploring?
Not looking for the obvious tourist checklist, more curious about places that surprised you, felt different from what you expected, or just stuck with you long after the trip ended.
Could be a country, a random small town nobody talks about, a trek, a street you wandered into by accident, anything.
A few things I’d love to know if you’re up for sharing:
Where was it, and what made it stand out for you?
Was it planned, or did you just stumble into it?
Would you actually go back, or was it a one-time kind of place?
Roughly how much did it end up costing you, and did it feel worth that amount looking back?
I’m building a list for future trips, and honestly the best recommendations I’ve gotten have always come from real people’s experiences rather than “top 10 places to visit” articles that all say the same five cities.
Drop your favorite spot, I’m genuinely taking notes.
The California Pacific Coast highway offers a ton of scenery. Half of it is the ocean, the other half is constantly changing terrain. I’ve gone south from San Francisco and would like to try north sometime. I’m a stargazer, so heading into Big Sur at night was a treat with such low light pollution, though winding cliffaide roads aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, especially at night. Still, it provides a wide array of cliffside features.
Acadia in Maine, USA is gorgeous, but hard to reach if having to fly there. Just something unique about the pines and topography.
If you have a day near Denver, Colorado, USA, then Pike’s Peak is an action-packed mountain experience. If you have a few days, I’d say Rocky Mountain National Park
Banff Canada is another wild mountainous area.
Influenced by Fairly Odd Parents, I saw no real reason to see the “big hole in the ground” called the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. I was quite wrong as it’s tremendous. I even tried hiking down. I compared our wall color to what I could see across the valleys and realized we didn’t even make a dent in the descent. Hours were spent. Remember to plan to spend twice as much time ascending. It’s also a dark sky certified park and offers great stargazing from near the visitor center. The park doesn’t close, which makes sense, as it takes 12-24 hours to cross.
I’d revisit any of these if I was in the area. I mostly seek out new places though. Edit: these are all free/“low cost” at under $100 per visit for entry. I mean, it’s not like resort pricing. Obviously travel to the nearest city and potentially renting a car adds to the cost, but that’s variable to the visitor.
thank you bro ! adding all of these to my list, Curious though, how’s ur experience been as a stargazer in general, do you travel specifically for dark sky spots ??
I gotta say, north from San Francisco is pretty amazing. I did a road trip years ago, we were in a hurry for this section, so took the I-5 rather than the coast road. That was a shame for the LA to SF section of the trip, but my god when we got north of SF… Driving through Shasta National Park was perhaps the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever witnessed.
At some point we passed a lake beach that was truly unreal, the vibrant greens of the pines, the red clay of the shore, and rich blue of the water, the color was so intense, so saturated, it was like an alien world in the best possible way.
When you look to the east, you can see Mount Shasta. Now, being from New England, up in the Appalachians, I thought I knew what a mountain was, I was wrong. Shasta loomed over the terrain, a solitary giant, with a perfect cone shaped lenticular cloud overhead. The scale was truly awe inspiring.
Note: I didn’t have to search for “lenticular cloud” to find that image, I just searched for “Mount Shasta”.
Should you make this drive, up toward Portland, don’t forget to stop in weed CA. It’s an old logging town, probably not a lot to see, but there’s a lovely, kitschy little diner, a great place to stop for lunch. The food was good, and you get the opportunity to pick up some merch like a shirt that says “I got high in weed CA”.